Documentary About The Undocumented To Be Released

Photo by Michael Lloyd/The Oregonian






Next Spring, undocumented students from Oregon will have the chance to have their stories heard through a documentary entitled "Papers." It's hard enough to grow up in an American high school, add that the burden of being an undocumented students, and your hardships are bound to grow just a bit more.
Director Anne Galisky is making this possible with the help of other immigration activists in the area. In a recent article by The Oregonian, Galisky explains how her close connection to these kids pushed her and her partner Rebecca Shine to come up with a project that could really focus on the kids' stories as undocumented youth.
Some of the things that studens go through as undocumented students in college are the lack of governmen financial aid, driver's license and a lack to various services that are easily available to American citizens.
Here in California, there is a law called AB 540, which allows students who have attended and graduated from a California high school to pay in-state tuition. Said law is being fought by groups who don't agree that undocumented immigrants should be allowed to pay in state tuition when out of state American citizens must pay out of state tuition.
The thing is, the majority of students who benefit from this law are American citizens themselves. A small portion of AB 540 students happen to be undocumented students.
Many of these students came to this country when they were just toddlers and became undocumented immigrants by default.